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Bilal Öztürk

  • Biodiversity Journal, 15 (1): 085-103

    Bilal Öztürk & Panayotis Ovalis
    Bela Leach, 1847 (Gastropoda Conoidea) species distributed along the Turkish coasts and in the Saronic Gulf (Greece) with description of Bela filioae n. sp.
    https://doi.org/10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2024.15.1.85.103
    https://www.zoobank.org/32FAD8D0-6840-4E16-8A45-69F352608F75

    ABSTRACT
    The present study includes the distribution of Bela Leach, 1847 (Gastropoda Conoidea) species along the Turkish coasts and in the Saronic Gulf, Aegean coast of Greece. The materials were collected between 1995 and 2023 and were taken from different habitats (soft and hard bottoms, and macrophyte beds) at depths ranging from intertidal zone up to 1000 m. As result of an analysed material of 266 live collected specimens and 14 shells belonging to genus Bela, 11 species were recognised. Bela filioae is described as a new species. Of the identified species, Bela zonata (Locard, 1891) was the most abundant and widely distributed species, especially on the Levantine coast of Türkiye, following by Bela menkhorsti van Aartsen, 1988 and Bela nebula (Montagu, 1803) mostly encountered in the Aegean Sea, while Bela cf. ginnania (Risso, 1826) was the rarest one. Bela menkhorsti was found to be significant as the deepest living species, sampled from depths up to 196 m. In the present study, along with the description of a new species, some ecological and distributional characteristics of the investigated species and their figures are also provided.